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Thread: Canadian couple pours life savings into backyard bitcoin mine

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    Default Canadian couple pours life savings into backyard bitcoin mine

    Hello Everyone:
    I have read more and more about people mining Bitcoin. Here is an interesting article about a couple that is going all out in mining.
    chancy


    Link
    https://ca.yahoo.com/finance/news/co...100000182.html

    Article:
    CBC - 7 hours ago
    Bitcoin gamble - Canadian couple pours life savings into backyard bitcoin mine

    Bitcoin gamble: Canadian couple pours life savings into backyard bitcoin mine

    Mining for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin isn't the first "crazy" idea Dan Ingram has come up with, according to his wife Amanda Ryland.

    "Most of his endeavours have been profitable," Ryland said. "They may sound crazy, but I trust him."

    Entrepreneurs at heart, the Langley, B.C., couple sees real potential in the somewhat complicated world of cryptocurrencies. But rather than buy the digital currencies, they have invested more than $100,000 in the machines, electricity and space to create new ones — a process known as bitcoin "mining."

    "If I was looking for get-rich-quick, I would've just bought bitcoin, and just sat there and crossed my fingers — and that would be really taking a chance," Ingram, 38, said. "I was looking for something that was a little bit more stable."

    Ryland, 39, jokes that she and her husband have to explain to friends that bitcoin mining doesn't require a headlamp or a pickaxe.

    Bitcoin mining is done digitally, using machines with high-level computing power to try to solve complex equations. Successful miners are rewarded for their efforts with bitcoin.

    Ingram and Ryland have 11 mining machines running at their home, and many more that recently shipped from China that they plan to set up in a specially designed warehouse space.

    Each shoebox-size machine requires a lot of electricity to run, generating heat that is moderated by an attached fan, which creates a loud humming noise.

    There are massive mining enterprises elsewhere in the world, such as those operated by Bitmain in China.

    The warehouse building will help Ingram and Ryland to access more power at better rates, but in order to compete with those giant commercial operations, the couple teams up with other miners in an online pool and get a small slice of any cryptocurrencies earned each day.

    "I'm not planning on taking money out on a daily basis to live off of — I have a job for that," Ingram said. "This is for the long term. It's basically taking all of my savings so far and putting it towards it. It is a little risky, but I'm young."

    Bitcoin is just one of many cryptocurrencies that have gained popularity in recent years, but its meteoric rise this year from under $1,000 US at the end of December 2016 to more than $15,000 US on Thursday has attracted attention from many high-level investors — some of them believers and others skeptics.

    Technology pioneer John McAfee recently predicted on Twitter that the price of a bitcoin would hit $1 million by 2020, while J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon has called bitcoin a fraud.

    "If you're stupid enough to buy it, you'll pay the price for it one day," Dimon told an audience at an Institute of International Finance conference in October.

    Bitcoin 'mania'

    Bitcoin's trajectory has all the hallmarks of a bubble, according to Adam Button, chief currency analyst at ForexLive.

    "This is the mania of our time," said Button. "This is a story that's gone from far on the fringes to the mainstream to something you're hearing about in restaurants and street corners every single day."

    Button is wary of how long bitcoin can keep up its explosive gains, particularly as its mainstream popularity makes it increasingly slow and pricey to use for its initial purpose — a way for people to exchange value among one another without having to rely on a bank or government to backstop the deal.

    "It's failed as a currency," said Button. "I don't think it will be too long until we see another massive correction."

    Even if bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies don't pan out to be a digital gold mine, Ingram says he's comfortable that he's taking a calculated risk.

    "If this is going to work, it's going to work really well," he said. "If it's not going to work, I'm going to have to live with this decision the rest of my life — and I'm fine with that."

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    Avalon Member dynamo's Avatar
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    Question Re: Canadian couple pours life savings into backyard bitcoin mine

    Quote Posted by chancy (here)
    ...Bitcoin mining is done digitally, using machines with high-level computing power to try to solve complex equations. Successful miners are rewarded for their efforts with bitcoin.
    ...
    OK, I'll bite.
    What types of "complex equations" and who pays them for trying to solve them?
    [EDIT by dynamo]
    Here is some more info on bitcoin mining:
    https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bitcoin-mining.asp
    Last edited by dynamo; 8th December 2017 at 13:17.

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    Default Re: Canadian couple pours life savings into backyard bitcoin mine

    I am ready to be corrected but this seems a cynical way to make money, on the backs of the delusions of others. Reading about the gold rush in San Francisco, the only people that made a lot of money were those that made the picks and shovels and the brothel owners. And Levi Strauss! This appears like not so much as history repeating itself but rhyming.
    Last edited by happyuk; 8th December 2017 at 22:00.

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    United States Administrator ThePythonicCow's Avatar
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    Default Re: Canadian couple pours life savings into backyard bitcoin mine

    Quote Posted by dynamo (here)
    What types of "complex equations" and who pays them for trying to solve them?
    Well, the equations aren't all that complicated, if you have the relevant background in mathematics and computer algorithms.

    Basically, it's like playing a numbers lottery ... you guess some numbers and hope to win.

    The difference is that instead of waiting a week for the government to tell what are the winning numbers, you can find out right away, by running a computer program on the number to see if is a winner.

    But the odds of winning are one in millions, or now one in billions, and only the first person to find a winning number gets the prize (another 20 Bitcoin or some such.)

    So a bunch of people with access to cheap electricity in various places around the world are each running tens or hundreds or thousands of specially built computers, all guessing like mad, hoping to guess the next winning number. There's a new Bitcoin lottery every 10 minutes or so. Other alternative crypto currencies have different timing parameters.

    The algorithm changes (gets harder) over time, in order to keep the time between winning Bitcoin numbers about 10 minutes. When too many computers, or too much faster computers, start routinely guessing the winning number faster than 10 minutes on average, the algorithm is made harder, to keep that 10 minute average

    The Bitcoin algorithm is "simply" looking for a 160 bit RIPEMD hash that has at least so many zeros in the high order bits, where the number of required zero bits increases over time, to make the problem harder and to hold the 10 minute average time to solve the problem.

    The hash is a hash of a bunch of the new submitted Bitcoin transactions. If your new Bitcoin transaction request is in the bunch of requests that were used in the next winning Bitcoin block, then your transaction request is well on its way to becoming a permanently recorded transaction on the Bitcoin blockchain.
    My quite dormant website: pauljackson.us

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    Avalon Member dynamo's Avatar
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    Default Re: Canadian couple pours life savings into backyard bitcoin mine

    Quote Posted by Paul (here)
    Quote Posted by dynamo (here)
    What types of "complex equations" and who pays them for trying to solve them?
    ...But the odds of winning are one in millions, or now one in billions, and only the first person to find a winning number gets the prize (another 20 Bitcoin or some such.)...
    Yup, most definitely not for me!
    LOL!
    Thanks Paul, too much for me to "compute" on a Friday evening methinks...

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    Default Re: Canadian couple pours life savings into backyard bitcoin mine

    My big grudge with crypto mining is the fact that so much energy is being wasted to do calculations that are of no benefit whatsoever.

    Environmentally it's a bit ridiculous.

    If they could put all that processing power to better use they could solve some really complex maths problems.



    Love and Truth,

    Amenjo

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    Default Re: Canadian couple pours life savings into backyard bitcoin mine

    As a professional on the financial service, I can smell a ponzi-scheme kilometers away.

    There is enough signs that BITCOIN will crash.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...-a8097321.html

    Natural news website published recently an article saying that at COINBASE you would be able to buy Bitcoins but would not be able to sell it and transform it back to a fiat currency.

    Today, two Brazilians Private Bank decided to close the current account of two companies that sells Bitcoins over here.

    You would imagine that if the Bitcoin is really that good, all the outlets would be willing to buy it, but they are just at the sell side.

    Buy bitcoins just to exchange it immediatly to buy other goods. Do not buy to hold it in a digital wallet, the bubble is about to burst.

    Kind Regards

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    Default Re: Canadian couple pours life savings into backyard bitcoin mine

    Quote Posted by chancy (here)
    while J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon has called bitcoin a fraud.
    I know the day is still young, but I think this is most ironic thing I have read today,

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    Default Re: Canadian couple pours life savings into backyard bitcoin mine

    Quote Posted by chancy (here)
    Bitcoin mining is done digitally, using machines with high-level computing power to try to solve complex equations. Successful miners are rewarded for their efforts with bitcoin.
    Ah, now I get it! This makes it sound a lot less scammy...

    Quote Posted by Paul (here)
    Basically, it's like playing a numbers lottery ... you guess some numbers and hope to win.
    HA HA HA

    I've heard rumors as well, and so far it sounds like it's working, at least for some people.

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